46p 20181213 2122 pabel


Attached is a drawing I made of comet 46P/Wirtanen on 13th December. Alas conditions were rather poor- the sky was generally hazy and a crescent moon added some light pollution.  My overall impression was that the comet was very diffuse and actually quite hard to see visually at x40.  The nucleus was seen but it was by no means obvious, and there was no sign visually of a tail.  I had hoped to get a visual magnitude estimate but the comparison stars were too far away to make a reliable observation.  If I was pushed I would say it was between magnitude 4.0 and 4.5

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